Ideas for IOP’s new building begin to take shape

The IOP is asking for members’ input as it begins to make detailed plans for its new home in King’s Cross.

The Institute is due to move its London headquarters to the building in the summer of 2015 and the property is being refurbished to meet the IOP’s needs.

The Institute’s chief executive, Paul Hardaker, said: “The building is about being a centre for the physics community to come together, so we want to design it with the right usability of space to facilitate that. We would like to have a modern conferencing and business suite with a large exhibition space where we can showcase collaborations with science, industry and the arts and humanities community, and a space where we can engage with newly incubated businesses.

“We hope to use the opportunity to have more public science events than we do at the moment and to have facilities in the new building that allow us to more widely broadcast our events over the web, so as to increase and broaden participation. We want the property to showcase physics at its best in the design and materials that we use and we are exploring ideas for a sustainable energy centre within the building.

“Shown here is an image of just one of the early ideas drawn up by our architects for the project, Tatehindle. As we get further down the line with our plans for the new building, we will display more of our design ideas in the Institute’s foyer at the London premises and on our website.

“We have already had opportunities for the IOP’s Council, and representatives of our groups and branches, to comment on some of these early ideas, and we would like to thank those members who have already sent in some very early suggestions, but there is still an opportunity in the run-up to Christmas to feed in your thoughts by e-mailing ceooffice@iop.org.”